New laws in several states prohibit nearly all abortions after 20 weeks’ gestation. This flies in the face of Roe v. Wade, which permits states to prohibit elective abortion only after viability is possible, at roughly 24 weeks’ gestation.
The laws are being justified on the theory that a fetus at 20 weeks can perceive pain, in spite of the fact that its cerebral cortex has not yet developed. Most scientists insist that a functioning cerebral cortex is necessary to perceive pain, or anything else.
On a Web site summarizing their case, abortion opponents counter with recent studies by a handful of scientists claiming that a functioning cortex is not necessary for the experience of pain. They charge that the American and British obstetrical colleges are biased, dominated by abortion supporters.
Projection, much?
These laws allow for an exception only in the case of possible death or permanent bodily injury of the mother. The law focuses on a couple who were not allowed to terminate a 22 week pregnancy, even though the fetus had stopped developing and the pregnancy had caused a serious infection.
Even worse, states are beginning to prosecute women for stillbirths. Kansas is attempting to shut down its three remaining abortion clinics through onerous and arbitrary building regulations.
Several states have passed new laws that force women to overcome arbitrary and unnecessary hurdles to terminate pregnancies. These include coercive “counseling” and ultrasounds. And, of course, several states are moving toward defunding Planned Parenthood, or have already defunded it. Across the country there has been a huge spike in state anti-abortion legislation.
I am glad to hear that everything is so hunky-dory in so many states that legislators have nothing else to do but think up ways to ban abortions. I’d hate to think this obsession with womb regulation might be taking precedence over more pressing matters. (/snark)
But I say again, polls going back many years show that American public opinion on abortion is not nearly as extreme as what one sees in a lot of state legislatures. A Time poll conducted last week showed that 64 percent of adults nationwide think that women have a right to terminate a pregnancy in the first few weeks, as opposed to 35 percent who think they don’t. So, while many Americans lean more conservatively on such issues as parental notification and limits on later-term abortions, there has long been a broad consensus that abortions in the first trimester or so (which are 88 percent of abortions performed in the U.S.) are a woman’s business, not the government’s.
This leads to two question. One, it seems to me there long has been a pattern for state legislatures to be more right wing than the the people of a state on many issues. Over the years I’ve noticed this in regard to several issues, from flying Confederate flags over statehouses to allowing bar patrons to carry guns. This speaks to the power of right-wing organizations to elect candidates, but I really wish someone would do a comprehensive study of this someday.
Second, I do wonder what the people in many of these states think. I suspect many of them voted for the guys who promised to cut taxes and grow jobs. Once elected, however, they appear to spend the bulk of their time trying to shut down abortion clinics. Which doesn’t grow jobs. When are they going to realize that if they want sane, responsible government, they have to weed out politicians who are obsessed with abortion.